What happens when something you rely on simply isn’t there? Imagine, just for a moment, that you’ve been going to a specific service provider everyday for the last year and have come to rely upon it. One day, out of the blue and with no warning whatsoever, it is no longer available. Your reaction?

Wednesday several hundred Starbucks coffee shops were closed to complete maintenance. Potentially thousands of people went without their morning caffeine injection as a result. And why did they go without it it?

In the words of one person in Florida:

I like to start my day with Starbucks, so I don’t really know what to do.

Starbucks is closed for routine maintenance, and this woman doesn’t know what to do.

It’s not as if there aren’t any other coffee shops that could take its place, even if – like me – you happen to be a true blue, dedicated Starbucks user. One day buying coffee from the delicatessen on the corner, from the kiosk, even from the cafe in the bus station isn’t going to kill you. But to stand in front of a closed store and claim you don’t know what to do?

Habits are good, I guess, but, now and then, it is also good to get out and see what else there is in the world. It is good to have a Plan B. Sometimes, amid all the concerns and complaints about the cost of living, it is good to have a thermos…

But, once again and honestly, to stand outside a closed store and say you don’t know what to do…